The event was a car rigged with a bomb in South Beirut. He was identified as a leader in the Islamic Resistance wing of the party, and not to my knowledge one of the senior political figures. I don't see any links on the web yet.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A bomb blast ripped through Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Monday, killing a senior member of the group, witnesses and Hizbollah said.

Witnesses said the blast rocked a car, killing at least one.

Hizbollah's al Manar television said the bomb killed Ghalib Awali as he got into his car. It described him as ``part of the leadership of the Islamic Resistance'' -- a reference to Hizbollah.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.<snip>

Israel assassinated the group's leader Abbas al-Mussawi in 1992 in an air strike on his car. Lebanon has tried and convicted several people in recent years of spying on and plotting against the group.

A senior commander of Hizbullah's military arm, the Islamic Resistance, was assassinated in a booby-trap car blast in south Beirut's Mouawad residential neighborhood on Monday and an obscure group calling itself Jund El Sham reportedly claimed responsibility.Ghaleb Awali, 40, left his home and climbed into his old Mercedes-Benz at 9 a.m., said Hizbullah's Al Manar TV station. "When he turned on the ignition, a powerful explosive charge went off."

Awali, a Shiite, was extracted from his charred car and rushed to a south Beirut hospital, but doctors who examined the dismembered corpse said death was instantaneous.

The responsibility claim by Jund El Sham, Arabic for Soldiers of Damascus, was made in a faxed statement to the Agence France Presse Beirut offices minutes after Awali's death. The group announced its debut at south Lebanon's Ein El Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp two weeks ago.

"We have executed one of the symbols of treachery, the Shiite Ghaleb Awali," Jund El- Sham's statement said, according to AFP.

Hizbullah withheld immediate comment on the responsibility claim. The words making the rounds in Beirut is that Hizbullah views Jund El Sham's claim as a hoax and holds Israel's Mossad secret service directly responsible for the target killing, a stance which could set the Lebanon-Israel border aflame anew.(Naharnet-AP-AFP)

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators

Important Notices: By participating on this discussion
board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules
page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the
opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent
the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.